Jack Moriarty (30 April 1901 – 5 September 1980) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er and champion goal-kicker in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL).

Family

The son of the Fitzroy full-back, dual premiership player, and first coach, Geoffrey John Moriarty (1871-1948), and Mary Anne Moriarty (1879-1964), née Jackson, Geoffrey John Moriarty was born at

Fitzroy, Victoria Fitzroy is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Fitzroy recorded a population of 10,431 at the 2021 census. Pl ...

on 30 April 1901. He married Isabel Sophia Nairn (1901-1987) in 1924.

Football

Moriarty was a lightly built full-forward — despite standing only 5'10" (178 cm), and weighing approximately 60 kg, he had the ability to jump over opponents and take strong over-head marks — who became a spectacular success after leaving

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

at the end of 1923 and crossing to

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

Essendon (VFA)

He played in every home-and-away game (17 matches) for the Essendon Association Football Club (a.k.a. "Essendon A") in 1921, the club's final season in the Victorian Football Association (VFA)'s competition.

Essendon (VFL)

Moriarty transferred to the Essendon VFL club in 1922, playing thirteen games at full-forward, including the Semi-final, against Carlton, on 23 September 1922. He was controversially dropped from the team for the Preliminary Final, against Fitzroy, on 7 October 1922, and half-back flanker

Greg Stockdale Francis Gregory Stockdale (30 July 1899 – 14 May 1949) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1920s. Family The son of William Hallett Stockdale (1859–1927), and Agn ...

moved to full-forward in his place. Although Essendon lost the match, 6.6 (45) to 9.14 (68), Stockdale kicked five of Essendon's six goals (one with his right foot, despite being a natural left-foot kick). Based upon that performance, Stockdale became the team's full-forward in 1923 — Stockdale scored 68 goals in the 1923 season breaking the VFL's (then) record of 66 goals set jointly by Fitzroy's

Jimmy Freake James Henry Freake (27 January 1889 – 19 May 1937) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serv ...

and Collingwood's

Dick Lee Richard Lee Peng Boon (born 24 August 1956) is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, playwright and film director. Early life Lee was born to a Peranakan father, Lee Kip Lee, (who wrote for ''The Straits Times'') and his wife , Elizabeth Tan. He was th ...

in 1915, and Moriarty was unable to break back into the senior team. However, Stockdale's record was broken the next season (in 1924), by Moriarty, who kicked 82 goals in his first season with Fitzroy.

Fitzroy (VFL)

In each of his first three matches with Fitzroy, Moriarty kicked seven goals en route to a then VFL season record of 82.

VFL Representative teams

Moriarty represented the VFL at the Hobart carnival in 1924 and went on to become a permanent fixture in Victorian sides for most of the next decade.

Goal-kicker

He topped Fitzroy's goal kicking list every year between 1924 and 1933, except for

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

, and was voted the club's best and fairest player in 1927 during an era when an award of this type was not made every season. At the end of his career, Moriarty had scored 662 goals in his 170-game VFL career, at an average of almost four goals per game. His total of 626 career goals for Fitzroy remained the club record when Fitzroy exited the VFL/AFL in 1996.

Death

He died on 5 September 1980.

Australian Football Hall of Fame

In 2004 Moriarty was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

.Gough, Paul (2004)
''Six greats inducted into Hall of Fame''
Australian Football League. Retrieved on 4 May 2008.

Player honors

* Fitzroy

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

1927.Brisbane Lions (2008)
''Honour Roll: Fitzroy Football Club Honour Board 1897 – 1996''
. Retrieved on 4 May 2008. * Fitzroy Leading goalkicker 9 times (1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933). * Fitzroy Team of the Century. * VFL Leading goalkicker Medal 1924.Australian Football League (2008)
''Coleman Medal List''
Retrieved on 4 May 2008. * Essendon Leading goalkicker 1922. * Victorian representative (11 games, 42 goals).

Footnotes

References

Essendon’s Most Promising Forward: Jack Moriarty Comes of Fine Football Stock, ''The Sporting Globe'', (Saturday, 5 August 1922), p.5.

Full Forward: Five Minutes with Jack Moriarty, ''The Sporting GLobe'', (Wednesday, 29 June 1932), p.8.
* Maplestone, M., ''Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996'', Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. * Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996.

External links

* *
Jack Moriarty, at ''The VFA Project''.

Jack Moriarty, at ''Boyles Football Photos'.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moriarty, Jack 1901 births 1980 deaths People educated at Xavier College Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Essendon Football Club players Fitzroy Football Club players Essendon Association Football Club players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Mitchell Medal winners VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal winners People from Fitzroy, Victoria